Apple Takes Its Bulk App-Buying System Overseas

Apple's Volume Purchase Programs for apps has today been made available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the U.K. The program lets businesses buy apps in bulk, and also enables a sort of business-only app store exchange for companies to make or acquire B2B apps. Apps can be bought at their usual face price, but developers can include special discounts for the program in order to entice companies to make mass purchases.

Apple hasn't traditionally been strong in the enterprise market but recently that has begun to dramatically change, and Macs and iOS devices are penetrating more and more into office spaces. Microsoft, traditionally king of the business computing market, has revealed its own enterprise-focused App Store in direct competition to Apple.